If It Weren't For You
by justwannabeafangirl
Summary: College Musical Fanfiction - Cooper Matthews is failing, so he is assigned a tutor, a girl named Jackie Pearson, to help improve his grades. Will they stay just friends or will their relationship develop into something more? Basically what would have happened if Cooper never had a crush on Bianca.


"Cooper!" Cooper Matthews woke up to the sound of his roommate, Nate, screaming his name. "Cooper Matthews! Get up, or you're going to miss your English midterm!" Cooper immediately stood up, realizing that he had fallen asleep at his desk while studying the night before. He checked his watch and was shocked to see that it was already ten o'clock, and his midterm was scheduled to begin in fifteen minutes. He got ready faster than he had ever thought possible and followed Nate out the door, saying a hurried goodbye to a still sleeping Lubo on his way out.

Somehow, Cooper and Nate arrived with minutes to spare. They stopped outside of the room in order to catch their breaths. "Are you ready for the midterm?" Cooper asked, breathing heavily.

"I don't know, but I sure hope so," Nate replied.

"Did you even study?" Cooper asked. "Because I studied all night, or at least until I fell asleep."

"I studied, thank you very much," Nate replied. "Actually, I'm the one who should be interrogating you. You've only barely passed every single test this year!"

"Nate!" Cooper said, glancing around to make sure that nobody had heard. "That's not something I really want everyone knowing! And it's not like I don't study; I've studied all night for every test and I still barely pass. I don't understand it!"

"I don't know, Coop, but I don't want to make you any more nervous than you already are. So good luck, and we're going inside now." Cooper slowly walked into the room while attempting to review all of the information in his mind, but he knew that this test would be just like all of the others.

Professor Stevens passed out the tests, and the second that Cooper turned his over, all of the information flew right out of his mind. He had read over all of his notes countless times in preparation for the exam, but he still couldn't remember the simplest details. As time passed, he found himself guessing on almost every question, and his nerves wouldn't go away. By the time the exam was finished, he was fighting to keep the tears from falling. He had worked so hard for nothing.

The second the exams were collected, he ran straight back to his dorm room without even bothering to wait for Nate. He ran straight past Lubo, who still hadn't woken up, and jumped onto his bed. He knew he really should call his mother about all of this, but he couldn't bear to disappoint her.

Eventually, he decided to just go to sleep and calm himself down, but just as he was dozing off, he heard a knock on the door. "Nate…" Cooper said, half asleep.

"Hey, Coop, sorry to bother you, but Professor Stevens asked me to give you this." He put a note on the bedside table and walked out.

Cooper reached for the note and opened it. It was exactly what he'd expected; he had to meet Professor Stevens in his office later that day. He sighed, set an alarm so he wouldn't oversleep, and closed his eyes.

A few hours later, Cooper was out the door and heading towards Professor Stevens's office. He felt his heart pounding and his stomach was filled with butterflies. He nervously opened the door and walked inside. Professor Stevens looked up. "Ah, Cooper, so nice to see you!"

Cooper couldn't tell how genuine his words were, but he smiled nervously back. "Hello, Professor," he replied.

"I see you've been having trouble with my tests." Cooper gulped. "Unfortunately, as a result, you're failing."

Cooper gasped. "I don't understand why this is happening! I study so hard, but I always forget everything during the test. I don't know what to do!"

"Well," Professor Stevens replied, searching for a piece of paper in his desk drawer. "I think some tutoring would help." He handed Cooper a tutoring form. "Bianca, my teaching assistant, will meet with you individually and hopefully that will help you improve."

"Actually, Professor, I don't have any more time this semester for tutoring," Bianca said. Cooper hadn't even noticed her until she spoke. "I have to work on my essay for the Kingston competition!"

"But Bianca, tutoring students is part of your job. If you can't tutor, then –"

"I can tutor him, Professor." Cooper turned around and saw a girl standing in the doorway. He recognized her from English class, but he couldn't remember her name. Julie, maybe? What was she doing here? And, more importantly, how much had she overheard?

"Excellent idea, Jackie!" Jackie. That was her name. "Cooper, this is Jackie Pearson, my star student. She'll be your tutor. I know she will help you improve greatly."

"Thank you, Professor," Cooper replied quietly. He felt his face turn red from embarrassment. He slowly stood, then walked quickly out of the room before anyone could say anything else.

He made it to the bottom of the steps before he was stopped by Jackie's voice. "Wait, Cooper!"

He turned around. "Yeah?"

"I'm around on Thursday. We can have our first tutoring session then. If you're available, that is."

"Yeah. Sounds good."

He started to turn back around, but Jackie called his name again. "And Cooper? I just want you to know…you don't have to be embarrassed. Everyone has trouble somewhere. We'll work through it together and you'll be getting A's before you know it." She smiled at him, and Cooper couldn't resist smiling back.

"Thanks, Jackie," he said, beginning to feel a little better about the situation. "So I'll see you Thursday?"

"Yeah. Looking forward to it." She smiled one last time and walked away.

When Cooper returned to his dorm room, he was immediately ambushed by Nate.

"What happened? What did he say? Have you been expelled yet?"

Cooper sighed. "No, Nate, I wasn't expelled. I just have to go to a tutor, that's all."

"Who's the tutor?"

"Jackie Pearson. She seems nice."

"Hmmm…"

"What?"

"Nothing," Nate said with a smirk and a laugh.

"Whatever," Cooper replied. He walked into his room and went back to sleep.

**Okay I know this chapter is kind of boring, but it's one of those necessary introductory chapters. I promise it will get more interesting; I have so many great ideas for this story already and I actually came up with a genius idea for it while finishing this up, so stay tuned for all of that.**

**Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and I hope you enjoyed! :1**

**~Melanie**

**Tumblr - justwannabeafangirl**

**Twitter - MelanieRaush**

**Instagram - justwannabeafangirl**


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